ST BARTHOLOMEW, initial miniature ‘I’ on a cutting from an illuminated Passionary [Tuscany, perhaps Florence, second half 12th century]

A Tuscan Romanesque miniature of the finest quality, a 12th-century depiction of St Bartholomew unparallelled by any other offered at public auction. This miniature from a Passionary manuscript narrating the lives of the saints should now be considered alongside three sister fragments with depictions of St Lucia and two male saints (one possibly St Simon) in the collection put together by Jan Herman van Heek at Huis Bergh Castle in ‘s-Heerenberg (Inv. no 805), published in Anne Korteweg’s 2013 catalogue. Together, these fragments offer a tantalising suggestion of the magnificent 12th-century volume from whence they came, a manuscript filled with monumental depictions of saints to strike awe into the reader.

Bartholomew himself forms the ‘I’ that opens a text on the life, mission and martyrdom of St Bartholomew (‘In[diae tres esse] ab h[ystoriographis] asser[untur…]’). Telling the story of Bartholomew’s mission in India, his expulsion of the demon Astaroth, the conversion to Christianity of the king Polymius and his people, and the saint’s martyrdom, the text appears to have been transmitted from an earlier manuscript of the Virtutes Apostolorum focusing on deeds of the Twelve Apostles.
Comparable to the most sophisticated work in a two-volume bible now in Florence (Bibl. Med. Laurenziana, Edili 125/6) from the first quarter of the 12th century – now generally accepted to have been made in that city – most notably in the rounded whorls and exaggerated linear waterfalls created in the draperies, the present miniature reflects the stylistic developments of at least another quarter century. The particularly sensitive rendering of the saint’s face and the subtlety employed in the colour modelling are of note; indeed, the depth of detail achieved by the artist means this miniature can be compared to larger-scale Tuscan panels of the period, including a work attributed to the Florentine Coppo di Marcovaldo (c.1225-c.1276), a depiction of the Madonna Enthroned in Santa Maria Maggiore with the Virgin surrounded by saints of a similar aspect.

Provenance:
- ALAN G. THOMAS (1911-1992), bibliophile and Lawrence Durrell scholar, his sale, Sotheby’s, 21 June 1993, lot 2.

Measurements:
204 x 104mm. 22 lines of text in two columns.

Bibliography:
W. Cahn, Romanesque Bible Illumination, 1982.
K. Berg, Studies in Tuscan Twelfth-Century Illumination, 1968.
E. Carli, Italian Primitives; Panel Paintings of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries, 1965, pp. 31-33.
Anne Korteweg, Catalogue of the Medieval Manuscripts and Incunabula at Huis Bergh Castle in 's-Heerenberg, 2013, p. 54.
Els Rose, ‘Virtutes apostolorum: Origin, Aim, and Use’, Traditio, 68, 2013, pp.57-96.

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